Written Answers Tuesday 4 April 2006

Scottish Executive

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the range of consultees involved in the development of local authority local housing strategies.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows.

  Communities Scotland guidance produced for use by local authorities on the preparation of Local Housing Strategies lists a range of people and organisations who are likely to have a contribution to make to the development of a local housing strategy.

  The list is not intended to be exhaustive or prescriptive and includes other local authority departments, registered social landlords, tenant representatives, neighbouring local authorities (given housing market area boundaries) and the private housing sector (e.g. house builders, solicitors property centres, landlords, rural landowners who provide housing for rent, letting agents and lenders). It also includes the NHS boards, Homes for Scotland, Scottish Water, the enterprise network and voluntary sector bodies (e.g. in areas of advice, ethnic minority communities, homelessness, young people and older people).

  The guidance can be found on the Communities Scotland website at: www.lhs.communitiesscotland.gov.uk.

Justice

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what investigations will take place into the miscarriage of justice suffered by Steven Johnston and Billy Allison.

Colin Boyd QC: I can confirm that, in light of concerns raised during the course of the appeal, Crown Counsel have instructed that a full investigation be carried out into the gathering and reporting of information to the Crown by Fife Constabulary.

  Fife Constabulary have consulted with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) and it has been determined that Lothian and Borders Police will conduct this enquiry, and report to the Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders, Mr Frank Mulholland QC.

National Health Service

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any local supplier tenders have been put on hold during the transition to centralised NHS procurement and, if so, how many such cases there have been in (a) Scotland and (b) the Lothians.

Mr Andy Kerr: Information on local supplier tenders put on hold during the transition to centralised NHS procurement is not held centrally. However, local suppliers are mostly involved with the supply of fresh foodstuffs to NHS boards. The supply of fresh foodstuffs is not a commodity covered by the new national procurement organisation.

Prostitution

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will bring forward proposals for legislation as a result of the recommendations contained in Being Outside: Constructing A Response To Street Prostitution.

Hugh Henry: I refer the member to the question S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa/search .

Prostitution

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish draft guidance on the implementation of new legislation resulting from the recommendations contained in Being Outside: Constructing A Response To Street Prostitution.

Hugh Henry: I refer the member to the question S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Prostitution

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish proposed new legislation resulting from the recommendations contained in Being Outside: Constructing A Response To Street Prostitution.

Hugh Henry: I refer the member to the question S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Prostitution

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that new legislation resulting from recommendations contained in Being Outside: Constructing A Response To Street Prostitution will address the harm caused to women through prostitution as well as the harm to communities.

Hugh Henry: The creation of a new street prostitution related offence is only one aspect of the Executive’s policy on street prostitution.

  The new offence will focus on the nuisance or offence caused by street prostitution related activity, whether caused by the purchaser or the seller.

  In addition, we have committed to produce guidance for local authorities and their community planning partners on how they should address street prostitution within the context of an overarching approach to tackling violence against women and of building safer stronger communities. The guidance will outline how they should tackle the demand for prostitution, prevent vulnerable individuals from becoming involved in prostitution, reduce the harm to those who are involved, assist those ready to leave prostitution to do so, and ensure the safety of local communities.

Rendition Flights

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-23748, S2W-23831, S2W-23835 and S2W-23994 by Cathy Jamieson on 16 March 2006 where it states that it "is not aware of any credible and reliable information to support the allegations that Scottish airports are being used" for the purpose of transferring "individuals through Scottish territory or airspace where there are substantial grounds to believe they would face a real risk of torture" by US agencies, whether this indicates that it does not believe that this is happening presently, or has happened in the past.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the Member to the question S2W-23994 answered on 16 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Rendition Flights

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-23748, S2W-23831, S2W-23835 and S2W-23994 by Cathy Jamieson on 16 March 2006 where it states that it "is not aware of any credible and reliable information to support the allegations that Scottish airports are being used" for the purpose of transferring "individuals through Scottish territory or airspace where there are substantial grounds to believe they would face a real risk of torture" by US agencies, whether this means that it discounts the evidence presented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that there have been instances of such transfers as being either credible or reliable.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the Member to the question S2W-23994 answered on 16 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Rendition Flights

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive further to the answer to question S2W-23996 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 March 2006, whether, in addition to advising anyone with "credible and reliable information regarding alleged criminal activity" that such information should be passed to the police, it has itself passed on to police any allegations brought to its attention regarding the possibility that US agencies have used Scottish airports as refuelling stops for flights engaged in the process of "extraordinary rendition".

Cathy Jamieson: No.

Rendition Flights

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23744 by Cathy Jamieson on 24 March 2006, what was meant by her, "I understand why people are concerned".

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the question S2W-23744 answered on 24 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Scottish Criminal Record Office

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-20247, S2W-23158 and S2W-23156 by Cathy Jamieson on 9 November 2005, 17 February and 10 March 2006 respectively, how these answers indicate (a) whether the dispute on the identification of certain fingerprints between the Aberdeen Fingerprint Bureau and the Scottish Criminal Record Office has been resolved, (b) who has responsibility for deciding how and when this dispute will be resolved in the event that it has not been resolved thus far and (c) what criteria will be used for the dispute resolution in the event that it has not been resolved thus far.

Cathy Jamieson: The disagreement concerns an identification in a case that has been concluded. There is no evidence that there is any disagreement within the Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) about any other case. The previous answers to which the question refers set out the measures put in place since the disputed identification demonstrate the significant progress that has been made to transform the SFS in the last nine years.

Special Educational Needs

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-24032 by Robert Brown on 17 March 2006, by which local authorities the three members of the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland are employed and to which local authorities the four independent consultants who are members of the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland are contracted.

Robert Brown: Further to the question S2W-24032 answered on 17 March 2006, two members of the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland are employed by the City of Edinburgh Council and the third member has since retired.

  We do not hold information on the current employment of the four independent consultants. Their employment contracts are a matter for them and their employers including local authorities, where appropriate.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Supporting People

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Supporting People fund spent in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06 and how much has been budgeted to be spent in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08.

Malcolm Chisholm: Expenditure on Supporting People over the period 2003-04 to 2007-08 is set out as follows.

  The figures for 2003-04 and 2004-05 are actual expenditure figures; 2005-06 is the estimated outturn, based on the latest returns received from local authorities; and the last two years are the allocations that will be made to local authorities.

  

 Year
 Expenditure


 2003-04
£408.415 million


 2004-05
£418.196 million


 2005-06
£425.777 million


 2006-07
£399.185 million


 2007-08
£400.896 million